Ascent Wealth Partners LLC Purchases 734 Shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

Ascent Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) by 1.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 75,588 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after buying an additional 734 shares during the quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $2,005,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in PFE. Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in Pfizer by 0.6% during the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 16,819,712 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $486,762,000 after purchasing an additional 100,900 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Pfizer by 11.0% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 130,143,942 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $3,766,366,000 after purchasing an additional 12,864,343 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings in Pfizer by 80.9% during the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 508,256 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $14,709,000 after purchasing an additional 227,349 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Pfizer by 394.2% during the third quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 52,238 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,512,000 after purchasing an additional 41,668 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in Pfizer by 26.0% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,105,433 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $89,872,000 after purchasing an additional 639,985 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 68.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on PFE shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Pfizer from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Pfizer from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Pfizer to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Pfizer from $30.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $29.00 price target on shares of Pfizer in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $31.92.

Pfizer Price Performance

NYSE:PFE opened at $26.32 on Friday. Pfizer Inc. has a 52 week low of $24.48 and a 52 week high of $31.54. The firm has a market cap of $149.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.66, a P/E/G ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.64. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $26.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $27.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 1.00.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.15. Pfizer had a net margin of 12.62% and a return on equity of 19.47%. The business had revenue of $17.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.26 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.10 earnings per share. Pfizer’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Pfizer Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 7th. Investors of record on Friday, January 24th will be given a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.54%. This is a positive change from Pfizer’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.42. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 24th. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 121.99%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Ronald E. Blaylock acquired 19,457 shares of Pfizer stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $25.65 per share, for a total transaction of $499,072.05. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 27,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $710,684.55. This represents a 235.84 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.06% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Pfizer Company Profile

Pfizer Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products in the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company offers medicines and vaccines in various therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular metabolic, migraine, and women's health under the Eliquis, Nurtec ODT/Vydura, Zavzpret, and the Premarin family brands; infectious diseases with unmet medical needs under the Prevnar family, Abrysvo, Nimenrix, FSME/IMMUN-TicoVac, and Trumenba brands; and COVID-19 prevention and treatment, and potential future mRNA and antiviral products under the Comirnaty and Paxlovid brands.